John Chapter 10:19-31

There are a few verses that perhaps should have been included with the previous post, but that had gotten to be too long as it was. We start with Verse 19, which was included, but I’ve come to like  overlapping the last/first verse. 

Text

19 Σχίσμα πάλιν ἐγένετο ἐν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις διὰ τοὺς λόγους τούτους.

20 ἔλεγον δὲ πολλοὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν, Δαιμόνιον ἔχει καὶ μαίνεται: τί αὐτοῦ ἀκούετε;

21 ἄλλοι ἔλεγον, Ταῦτα τὰ ῥήματα οὐκ ἔστιν δαιμονιζομένου: μὴ δαιμόνιον δύναται τυφλῶν ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνοῖξαι;

There was again a schism amongst “The Jews” on account of his words. (20) Many spoke about him, “He has a little demon and he is raging/mad with wine! Did you hear what he said?” (21) Others said, “These words are not those of one demonite-possessed. One under the power of a little daimon cannot open the eyes of the blind.”

These verses should have gone with the previous post. My apologies. However, what’s done is done, and if it were done when ’tis done then ’twere well it were done quickly.

Thus is actually the third tim John has used the word “schism”. I transliterate rather than translate because this is another instance of a word that has come to have a specific, and specifically religious meaning in English. The Western and Eastern Churches suffered an irreparable schism in 1054, one that has left us with a Roman Catholic and a Greek Orthodox Church. The stretch of years in the 14th Century when the papacy relocated to Avignon and a second pope was ruling in Rome has been termed the Western Schism. That one was healed. The word in Greek simply means “division” or something such. Such a division arose in Chapter 9, and prior to that in Chapter 7. The one we encounter here is perhaps best seen as a continuation of the one in that cropped up in Chapter 9. Back then it was put out that he cannot be a man of God because he healed someone on the Sabbath, and one suspects this is largely the same crew saying that he has a demon and he is mad with wine (more on that in a moment).  Interestingly, back in Chapter 4, when he healed a man at the Sheep Gate on the Sabbath, John does not use the word “schism” to describe what is a very similar situation. 

“Mad with wine”. This is an interesting bit of etymology. The modern translations I’m using all render this as some version of “he is mad/insane”. The NT dictionary attached to the Bible.org site shows it simple as ‘mad’, or to ‘rage, be furious’. In pagan usage the base meaning is the latter, ‘rage, be furious’, the implication being simple anger. Being mad does come in, and it particularly implies madness as a result of wine. There is a fair bit of Greek literature that deals with the madness of wine. We call it drunk, but the Greeks saw it as a bit more sinister, at least potentially so.  So the use of this word is not entirely moral, as in getting drunk is a sign of low character. It has the implication of something like being demon-possessed as in the sense of being not in one’s proper mind; which is to say, mad. Interestingly, check out the Latin word bolded below: insanit. I heard it said once (TV show?) that “insane” is not a medical term, but a legal one. (Not sure the point of that…) The Latin sanus, negative being insanus, means “healthy /unhealthy”, but “sound/unsound” is perhaps a better rendering of the word. So you get the point. They are declaring Jesus to be mad, whether demon-possessed or with wine, which to some writing Greek was more or less the same thing.

I did some funky things with daimon/daimonion. The latter is a diminutive form of the former, so “little daimon”. What is a “little daimon? Or what is a daimon for that matter? What is a daimonion? Actually, I know the answers to those questions. What concerns me–us–here is what does John mean when he uses the word? That is really difficult to answer. Or is it? How Greek was John in his thinking? We know that the transition from the neutral, or at rather ambiguous–they could be either good or bad–daimon to the specifically malevolent demon was a Christian phenomenon that was mostly complete by the 5th Century as the Christian writers took over. When did this transition truly start? Did it start all at once and across the board? Or was it a gradual process? A text here, a text there, expanding out in concentric circles? NT Greek tends to assume that this transition to demon happened very quickly, so lexica of NT Greek give the word as “demon” with all its attendant baggage. Here the context makes the “little daimon” seem not to be a good thing, and since its moral character has been specified,  I suppose it’s acceptable to leave it as “demon” and get on with our lives. However, do not get into the habit of taking the word “daimon”, and especially not “demon”, at face value. But that’s true with baptize, angel, apostle, and a bunch of others.

19 Dissensio iterum facta est inter Iudaeos propter sermones hos.
20 Dicebant autem multi ex ipsis: “ Daemonium habet et insanit! Quid eum auditis? ”.
21 Alii dicebant: “ Haec verba non sunt daemonium habentis! Numquid daemonium potest caecorum oculos aperire? ”.

22 Ἐγένετο τότε τὰ ἐγκαίνια ἐν τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις: χειμὼν ἦν,

23 καὶ περιεπάτει ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ ἐν τῇ στοᾷ τοῦ Σολομῶνος.

24 ἐκύκλωσαν οὖν αὐτὸν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ ἔλεγον αὐτῷ, Εως πότε τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμῶν αἴρεις; εἰ σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστός, εἰπὲ ἡμῖν παρρησίᾳ.

It was the Feast of the Dedication amongst the Jerusalemites; it was winter. (23) And Jesus was walking about in the porch of the Temple of Solomon. (24) The Jews encircled him and said to him, “Until when do you lift up/take hold of the soul/life? If you are the anointed tell us frankly.”

This is not a ideal place for a break, but once Jesus launches into his answer, it will be even more difficult to find a logical break point. 

The Dedication, or Rededication. AKA Hannukah. This festival commemorates the rededication of the Temple by the Maccabaeans after the successful revolt from the Kingdom of the Seleucidai, the Macedonian kingdom of Syria. One commentator points out that an interval of months has elapsed since Chapter 9, since that was set during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), which is usually October-ish. Here John tells us it’s winter, and Hannukah falls in December. John is very consistent to provide the time of year, or when the action described falls during a festival. In no small part this seems to be a literary device to give Jesus a chance to be in Jerusalem rather than in Galilee or elsewhere. I’m not entirely certain why this is so important to John, but one suspects it has to do with the community’s formal rupture with Judaism. John is giving us this information as a means of demonstrating that he and his group were, in fact, observant Jews. Or, contrariwise–as Tweedledee would say–it was done to show that, yes, “The Jews” had their festivals, and yes they diligently observed them, but the obervance was an outward show that did not provide them with insight into who Jesus was; that is to say, they missed the point about Judaism. It was about the Messiah, the Messiah came, and they didn’t get on board with it. Take your pick. I was in the first camp, but now I think I’ve moved to the second.

This is really picking nits, but this was not the Temple of Solomon. That was destroyed by the Babylonians when they defeated Judah, sacked and burned Jerusalem, and deported the Judahites to Babylon until Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to return to Judah and re-build the Temple. Strictly speaking, this was the Second Temple. This matters. I’m not sure how, but it does. It has been suggested that this was an actual relic of of the First Temple, the chances of this being accurate are slim at best.

So tell us, for Pete’s sake! That was a bit of a…pun, since the “Pete” is St Peter”. But regardless, I do not recall another instance where Jesus was questioned with such insistence, whether in this gospel or any of the others. Let’s get to Jesus’ response. 

22 Facta sunt tunc Encaenia in Hierosolymis. Hiems erat;
23 et ambulabat Iesus in templo in porticu Salomonis.
24 Circumdederunt ergo eum Iudaei et dicebant ei: “ Quousque animam nostram tollis? Si tu es Christus, dic nobis palam! ”.

25 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Εἶπον ὑμῖν καὶ οὐ πιστεύετε: τὰ ἔργα ἃ ἐγὼ ποιῶ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ πατρός μου ταῦτα μαρτυρεῖ περὶ ἐμοῦ:

26 ἀλλὰ ὑμεῖς οὐ πιστεύετε, ὅτι οὐκ ἐστὲ ἐκ τῶν προβάτων τῶν ἐμῶν.

27 τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἐμὰ τῆς φωνῆς μου ἀκούουσιν, κἀγὼ γινώσκω αὐτά, καὶ ἀκολουθοῦσίν μοι,

28 κἀγὼ δίδωμι αὐτοῖς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀπόλωνται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ οὐχ ἁρπάσει τις αὐτὰ ἐκ τῆς χειρός μου.

29 ὁ πατήρ μου ὃ δέδωκέν μοι πάντων μεῖζόν ἐστιν, καὶ οὐδεὶς δύναται ἁρπάζειν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ πατρός.

30 ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν.

31 Ἐβάστασαν πάλιν λίθους οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἵνα λιθάσωσιν αὐτόν.

Jesus answered them, “I told you and you did not believe. The works that I do in the name of my father, they give witness about me. (26) But you do not believe, since you are not from my sheep. (27) My sheep hear/listen to my voice, and I know them and they follow me, (28) and I give to them eternal life, and they may not have been destroyed forever, and no one will wrest them from my hand. (29) My father who has given [them] to me, is greater of all, and no one is able to steal them from the hand of my father. (30) I and the father are one. (31) “The Jews” picked up rocks again to stone him.  

So once again Jesus provides a circumlocution rather than an answer. Or maybe he just evades the question. I suppose this is one of those situations in which both sides have a legitimate case. “The Jews” want Jesus to come out and say, “I am the Messiah”, which he won’t do. Jesus’ point is that while, no, he has not made that simple declarative sentence, he’s shown them. Over and over. What more evidence do we need? Twice in Chapterr 9 & 10 the comment has been made that demons, or demon-possessed people can’t give a man his sight. There is a legitimate question to be asked whether or not this statement is true; that is, whether or not demonaics or demons could perform such wonders, did people believe they could? The answer is a qualified “yes, they can”, at least in certain circumstances or in the minds of certain individuals. This qualification is necessary because what we would call magic, or wonder-working, had various layers. We have a trove of what are called the “Greek Magical Papyri” (abbr = PGM from the Latin initials). These are mostly low-level things: make so-and-so fall in love with me; let my team win the upcoming chariot race; make so-and-so’s tongue swell up so he can’t press his lawsuit when comes up next week. These are the things of ordinary people with ordinary concerns. That we have so many from across the Empire is a pretty good indication that a lot of people believed that some form of magic was efficacious. Then the debate turns to whether or not the magician casting the spell had sufficient power to effect these outcomes on his/her own authority, or was the intervention of a spirit–a daimon–necessary. To some extent this also requires an answer of “it depends”. As time passed and Christians became more numerous, more educated, and more power the answer became “yes”: some form of supernatural intervention was needed to bring about the desired result. From there the next step was to condemn all daimones as necessarily evil. There were no good daimones–although later Christian saints took on such powers to suspend the laws of nature and perform what by then were called miracles. But that position is several centuries forward from John’s gospel. It is to be noted that one of the entities invoked in such spells was Jesus; he carried an aura of having been a particularly powerful magician in some circles, and this belief carried forward for no short span of time, upwards of a century or more. In fact, several Christian authors wrote apologetic works defending against this charge into the Third Century.

There is also a strain of what we can call “intellectual magic”. These practitioners were learned men who studied various forms of what we would call “occult”–in the modern sense of the word–learning, but this learning also involved studying Plato, Aristotle, Babylonian astrology, and other such pursuits. They ended up producing things like the Corpus Hermeticum, a series of tracts that discussed the non-material world. These men surely believed that the learned magician could do all sorts of incredible things. One tract actually suggests that a human can become more or less a god and so do all sorts of things. In such circles the invocation of help from a non-material entity was not always seen as needed to work a wonder. That is also a century or two later than John. 

But let’s bear in mind that John was writing for rather a specific audience. Thus the question is: what did they believe? If they were former Jews, I suspect the answer is probably aligned with the speakers who said that such things could not be done by demons. While making generalizations is always fraught with difficulty, I believe it is reasonably safe to say that Jews were at least somewhat less inclined to give credit to spirits than their pagan neighbors. The Jews, again very broadly, were not big on the non-material world. As we’ve gone along, I’ve been pointing out that the Jewish notion of eternal life more or less presupposed the continued existence of the body, rather than that of an immaterial soul. The HS is not without references to non-material entities; the Witch of Endor calling up the ghost (?) of Samuel comes foremost to mind; however, she is more of a diviner than a what we would consider a witch. As for the injunction in Exodus that you shall not suffer a witch to live, the word there is highly ambiguous and can simply mean “poisoner”; the root is pharmakos, obviously the origin of our “pharmacy” or “pharmacist” and the Greek word is broad enough to cover our concept. As with daimon, the term is not necessarily malevolent, just as or word “drug” can refer to something beneficial like aspirin or it can refer to heroin.

Given that the entire corpus of the Hebrew Scriptures yield two rather oblique references to a supernatural world, it would seem the conclusion to be drawn is that John’s audience would most likely have agreed with the assessment that demons could not perform such works. For again, one of the few instances of a wonder worked by someone other than God or one of his agents–Elijah/Elisha raising the dry bones–was the priest of Pharaoh tossing his staff and seeing it turn into two snakes. So yes, the conclusion is that the supernatural did not impinge on the workaday world unless it was God performing the wonder. Of course, this assumes that the audience, the assembly John was addressing, had a Jewish background, rather than a pagan one like the authors of the Synoptics faced. This seems very likely. WE commented that John is constantly telling us which feast is being celebrated; this one is Hanukkah, previously we were told it was Sukkoth. These temporal markers would not have been terribly meaningful to pagans, so it’s not unreasonable to infer that the audience was largely Jewish. Taking all this together, the audience would haave concluded that demons cannot give a person sight, but the Messiah can. Jesus did all these things. Ergo, Jesus is the Messiah. Q.E.D.

The remaining verses are more extended metaphor/parable about the Good Shepherd. Oddly, although both Matthew and Luke relate the parable of the one lost sheep out of a hundred, but neither of them has Jesus referring to himself as the Good Shepherd as he does in this chapter. A Google search of “good shepherd” will take you both to the Parable of the Lost Sheep and this part of John, but the Lost Sheep is the first result. Raising sheep was an integral part of the economy in the Near East, and had been for a long time, so the analogy would have been familiar to audiences. But it is conspicuously absent from Mark. Why? The tradition suggests that Mark was written somewhere outside the Near East, with Rome being the leading candidate. However, the choice of Rome is tied up in the idea that Mark was John Mark who was mentioned in Acts as the companion of Peter. Since Peter supposedly went to Rome to become the first bishop, it’s more or less assumed that (John) Mark would have been with him there, and wrote the gospel per Peter’s recollections. However, since there is no evidence that either Peter or Paul was ever in Rome, I find this dubious at best. But that’s a debate for another time. The point here is that Matthew was the first to add material based on sheep herding, introducing the 99/1 sheep pericope. Luke includes this, but doesn’t add much. I won’t speculate on where Luke was written. Johm continues the tradition of Matthew, and adds to it by positing Jesus as the Good Shepherd. 

The sheep are from the Father. I suppose there is nothing really extraordinary about this on face value. Of course all flows from the Father in Jesus’ worldview. Even so, this is not a passage that gets a lot of discussion in gospel readings. I don’t find it familiar, but I’m hardly a biblical scholar. The more interesting aspect is that no one can snatch the sheep from the father’s hand. This is bordering on a one-and-done process of attaining eternal life: once you’re in the fold, you don’t–can’t?–leave it. That is an extreme position, but it’s the sort of vague-ish sentiment that can lead to oodles of controversy over the course of centuries. The whole Predestination debate revolves around what may be extreme interpretations of a select number of verses; however, over time, someone is going to put forth that extreme interpretation and cause a hubbub in the flock of believers. This is prefaced by Jesus saying that the father is greater than all, which is an implication of divine omnipotence, so what the Father has determined cannot be undone. Editor’s note: Note that the word meizon is the comparative form, not the superlative form. So it’s “greater” rather than “greatest”; however, if something is “greater than all”, it’s the functional equivalent of “greatest of all”. So why didn’t John simply use the superlative? Anyone? Bueller?

Now what about the context? This comes directly before “I and the father are one”. These two verses are, if not actually contradictory, don’t sit well together. Upon first reading my reaction to Verse 30 was “Where did that come from?” At the very least, it does not flow naturally from the previous verse wherein things flow from the father, which implies a logical distinction between son and father. This renders the assertion that “I and the Father are one” a bit of a problem. Is it like the greater/greatest in Verse 29? Two ways of saying the same thing? The end result is that the identity is posited in Verse 30, but the apparent distinction raised my eyebrow. And this is not the only time Jesus has implied a distinction between son & father, but it’s also not the only time that he has followed this up by asserting the logical identity, a = b. I suppose we can suggest a certain amount of rhetorical flourish; saying a = a is a bald tautology, and that is boring. OTOH, a = b has a bit more flavor to it. But individual uses of such rhetorical devices accumulate, and this creates a certain amount of doubt amongst logical considerations. Of course, the NT is not a discourse on or in logic, so such considerations may, in fact, be moot*. 

Finally, the last verse. “The Jews” started collecting rocks to stone Jesus. We are told no more, so Jesus presumably was able to make his escape without much further ado. He does not pass through their midst as he did in Luke. The point is simply that “The Jews” had grown exasperated with his arrogance and blasphemy. 

*Moot: pronounced to rhyme with “boot”. Something that is irrelevant, or that really doesn’t affect the sitution is a moot point, not a mute point. 

25 Respondit eis Iesus: “Dixi vobis, et non creditis; opera, quae ego facio in nomine Patris mei, haec testimonium perhibent de me.
26 Sed vos non creditis, quia non estis ex ovibus meis.
27 Oves meae vocem meam audiunt, et ego cognosco eas, et sequuntur me;
28 et ego vitam aeternam do eis, et non peribunt in aeternum, et non rapiet eas quisquam de manu mea.
29 Pater meus quod dedit mihi, maius omnibus est, et nemo potest rapere de manu Patris.
30 Ego et Pater unum sumus”.
31 Sustulerunt iterum lapides Iudaei, ut lapidarent eum.